Home Alone, ahhhhhh!

spacecatspiff

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Hey all,
I'm thinking about leaving town for work this summer and I was wondering how long a cat can be left. I'm thinking someone would be home for a week and then gone for 2 weeks but I might be gone the whole summer. I can't think of anyone who could take the cat for the summer. So what do you guys think some options are; would it be better for my cat if I got a second cat or would both cats just be lonely?
Thanks,
SpaceCat
 

liza24

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even with a second cat, i dont think its a good idea to leave them all summer, even if someone checks on them. if the cat is really attached to you, it could cause real problems, emotionally and physical. and anyway, would you really WANT to leave that lil kitty for all that time? I sure couldnt do it! They need constant love and attention, and someone looking in on them every once in a while wouldnt cut it.

If you MUST leave town for the whole summer, i would consider finding a new home for the cat, or find someone who can foster it for a time.
 

larke

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Also, with no one there on a daily basis who knows your place and the cat(s) well enough to tell if something was wrong, let alone care enough to bother to check every time, you can't imagine what might go wrong. We came home once after an extra long wknd, during which time a neighbor's 15 yr old was supposed to feed our 3, only to find dried up smelly left-overs in the dishes (older than a day), but a large and heavy glass shelf that had been fine holding plants in a window for yrs had smashed, half on and off the table below, obviously having somehow been jumped on by a cat (never when we were around) and we were just lucky they were all still alive. Another time in a similar situation we came home to find one of our 'babies' sick and shivering (which eventually led to his demise), but had not been called about it, though our number was still posted at home, possibly because only we could tell something was wrong with him (vs a stranger noticing). So consider carefully before leaving them...
 

yosemite

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Originally Posted by SpaceCatSpiff

Hey all,
I'm thinking about leaving town for work this summer and I was wondering how long a cat can be left. I'm thinking someone would be home for a week and then gone for 2 weeks but I might be gone the whole summer. I can't think of anyone who could take the cat for the summer. So what do you guys think some options are; would it be better for my cat if I got a second cat or would both cats just be lonely?
Thanks,
SpaceCat
I may be a bit slow (it is after all Monday) but it sounds as though the cat will be left alone 2 weeks at a time (with nobody changing litter or feeding ?). This is certainly not a good thing for the cat (or you either for that matter since if the litter isn't clean you may find your home in quite a mess as cats don't like using dirty litter and will probably find other places to do their business.

I agree with the other poster that recommended you find a good foster home for this cat until you are settled enough to be able to give it a stable homelife. I'm not blaming you so please don't get that impression (sounded like it when I re-read this) - it's just that right now your life is taking you in a different direction so perhaps it would be better for the cat to have a more stable environment and also it would help you in that you won't be away somewhere worrying about your cat.

Hope you can get this worked out satisfactorily for both you and the cat.
 
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spacecatspiff

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Thanks for the advice everybody. To clarify it's not that I'd like to leave but I will probably need to work out of town this summer to be able to afford living while finishing my last year of school.
At this point I'm not entirely sure what is happening, but I welcome anymore comments or suggestions.
Thanks,
SpaceCat
 
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